Weekend Split Leaves Crimson Even in League

Looking to regain its rhythm in league play, the Harvard men’s volleyball team managed only a split this weekend on the road, defeating New Haven on Friday before falling to New Jersey Tech (NJIT) on Saturday.

The two contests left the Crimson (3-8, 2-2 Hay) in the middle of the pack in the league standings—a position unpredicted by the preseason poll that picked Harvard to win the division.

“We’ve already dropped two league games,” co-captain John Freese said. “And we really shouldn’t be dropping any more.”

That’s what the Crimson will use for motivation when it heads to Springfield, Mass., on Friday to face the Pride, the league foe that dealt Harvard its first Hay Division loss of the year with a 3-1 victory on Feb. 1.

“We have raised our level of play quite a bit since our last match, and we want to prove something to Springfield,” Freese said.

NJIT 3, HARVARD 0

Facing the Highlanders for the second time this year, Harvard played just as badly, losing 3-0 (30-24, 30-28, 30-24) Saturday at the Fleisher Center in Newark, N.J.

Though the Crimson did have junior setter Dave Fitz in the lineup, co-captain Seamus McKiernan—who had 15 of Harvard’s 33 kills in its first matchup against NJIT—sat out most of the match with an illness.

“He came in couple times tonight, but he is still under the weather,” said Fitz after Saturday’s match. “We really need him back out there because he’s a team leader.”

Without McKiernan in the lineup, much of the offensive burden fell on outside hitter Luke McCrone. The senior, who has stepped up his level of play during McKiernan’s protracted absence, posted 12 kills on .308 hitting to lead the Crimson attack.

But the Highlanders’ offense was too overpowering, hitting at a .333 clip—including a .436 rate in the third frame.

“I don’t know what it was,” Freese said. “We just lost that looseness that we’ve had in the last few matches.”

The NJIT attack started off slowly but gained momentum as the match went on. Posting only 14 kills in the first game, the Highlanders (7-5, 3-3 Hay) relied on their defense to shut down Harvard.

With the Crimson struggling to deal with its opponent’s serves, Harvard’s passing game broke down and allowed the Highlanders to take game one with a 30-24 victory.

“I didn’t run the correct offense, and they were just camping on our outside hitters,” Fitz said. “We’ve just got to be able to handle the serve. If we can do that, then we can push the tempo up the middle.”

Though the Crimson was able to stay with NJIT in the second frame, the Highlanders escaped with a 30-28 win before posting 23 kills in game three to close out Harvard, 30-24.

“We kept getting down on ourselves, and we weren’t playing with the resiliency that we did before,” Freese said. “We all left the gym feeling that we didn’t leave it all out there.”

HARVARD 3, NEW HAVEN 1

The Crimson came into Charger Gym with an attitude and took care of business, dropping only one game en route to a 3-1 (30-27, 25-30, 30-23, 30-26) victory over New Haven on Friday night in West Haven, Conn.

Despite playing without McKiernan, the Harvard offense looked solid for most of the night, led by McCrone’s 21 kills on .390 hitting. With libero Laurence Favrot (13 digs) and Freese (seven blocks) guiding the defense, the Crimson picked up its second league win of the year in entertaining fashion.

“We had fun out there,” Fitz said. “We played the best that we had all year, talked some trash—we just enjoyed ourselves.”

After New Haven (10-2, 4-1) picked up the second frame to tie the match at one game apiece, Harvard produced its best effort of the night. Registering 23 kills and only three errors for a whopping hitting percentage of .513, the Crimson streaked to a 30-23 victory in game three to take the 2-1 match lead.

“We had great passing, and we were able to push the middle,” Fitz said. “Our hitters had single blocks all night.”

Though the third frame featured Harvard’s best hitting, the Crimson offense was solid in games one and four as well. Posting 17 kills in both frames, Harvard held off Chargers rallies to escape with 30-27 and 30-26 wins.

Harvard’s attack did falter in game two, hitting at a meager .133 clip, but the offense recovered in time to deal New Haven its first league loss of the year.

“We had our resiliency,” Freese said. “A few times, we were tied or down, but we always knew we would come back.”

—Staff writer Karan Lodha can be reached at klodha@fas.harvard.edu.